Being a young designer myself I get a lot of people expecting me to design something for them for free or for a very low fee, when I was first starting out I would have been happy to accept these projects. Once I had built up my portfolio and became serious about my work, I wasn’t as excited to take on these projects were I wasn’t going to get paid and would have to do the work of a paid project and have to deal with clients who always wanted more and more but weren’t willing to compensate me for my work. In this post I will share some of the steps I took to bring in serious clients who were looking to hire and pay me for my hard work.
Be professional when speaking to clients. Use proper speech don’t speak to clients as if you were talking to your friends.
Be prepared before contacting a client, know what you are going to say and be ready to answer any question that they may ask you.
Use a questionnaire or form that asks the client about certain details that you will need to know when working on the project.
- Ten Questions You should be Asking to Produce the Killer Design Clients Crave
- 20 questions to ask clients before designing a logo
- 18 questions to ask a client before designing a logo
Write up a contract laying out all of the projects terms, expectations, and details. A contract will help to keep you and your client protected and can be a good reference if there are any misunderstandings later on, it also lets the client know that you are serious about what you do.
- 5 free to use freelance design contract templates
- The bare bones that every freelance contract should have
- Graphic Designer Contracts Agreements Forms and Web Designers Contracts
- Do you need a contract for freelance work?
Include a deposit in your contract, state that work will start once a certain percentage of the total is received and that you will deliver files and the completed project once payment is received in full.
Value yourself and your work, charge what your worth. Don’t allow clients to bribe you or try to get you to work for free or almost nothing.
Be helpful, offer solutions, don’t be afraid to make suggestions, show them that your the designer and you know what your talking about. Don’t allow clients to command everything if you feel something isn’t right or shouldn’t be done let them know why you think so.
Thanks for the post! I am a self taught student still learning the ropes with aspirations of beginning freelancing next year. This article and the listed resources will be very helpful!
No problem, glad you found it useful. Thanks for leaving a comment!
This was a really nice article! Thank you.
My goodness! You inspire me. Thank you so much!
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